by Gary Mintchell | Feb 5, 2025 | News, Software
More news from a company I’ve recently learned. Foxit develops document handling solutions based on the PDF format. I am using it instead of Adobe. I’m not a power user, but I find it an attractive interface and quite usable.
This news deals with a strategic partnership between Foxit and Pax8, a cloud commerce marketplace.
Foxit’s Tools, Including PDF Editor+ and eSign For Business, Now Available Through the Pax8 Marketplace
Foxit and Pax8 announced they have entered into a strategic partnership. Foxit’s PDF and eSignature solutions will now be offered via the global Pax8 Marketplace, backed by Pax8’s expertise. Pax8’s MSP partners will now be empowered to deliver Foxit’s cutting-edge technology to their end customers.
The following four Foxit solutions are now generally available through the Pax8 Marketplace:
1.) Foxit PDF Editor – A powerful tool for creating, editing, and managing PDF documents with ease and efficiency, featuring an AI Assistant that enables users to summarize complex documents, enhance writing, and translate documents in more than 30 languages.
2.) Foxit PDF Editor+ – An enhanced version of the PDF Editor with advanced features for professional users – including 80+ Smart Commands, legally binding eSign, and AI-powered Smart Redact.
3.) eSign for Business – A secure, seamless eSignature solution that enables users to break away from cookie-cutter eSign solutions and enable businesses to get documents signed, collect payments, and keep workflows moving.
4.) Foxit AI Assistant – An intelligent assistant that leverages AI to enhance productivity and streamline document workflows, providing its users with the ability to summarize documents in seconds, quickly rewrite documents with clarity and precision, and to chat naturally to make more informed decisions, faster.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 4, 2025 | Commentary, News
When I was yet a wee lad, my grandfather told me stories of his days as a production superintendent at a GM plant. I learned about process, flow, how you can never make up for lost production due to downtime. He told me how he reorganized the plant at the beginning of World War II to manufacture machine gun bolts for aircraft. Dad was an accountant, but he sometimes told me about sales engineers that came to his plant to help fix machines.
Years ago when I had a sales engineering position, one of my customers was a US Army armaments plant. They built the Abrams M1 tank. I once quoted a job to upgrade equipment that painted the camouflage pattern. Just as I turned in the quote, Bush I invaded Kuwait. All the tanks were painted a single color—Desert Sand.
Even though I’m an internationalist in many ways, I recognized the crucial interplay of manufacturing and national defense.
This prelude leads to a report released by Michael Bloomberg called Strategic Edge: A Blueprint for Breakthroughs in Defense Innovation. This privately commissioned report addressed the challenges facing America’s strategic defense posture. Chaired by General David Berger (USMC, Retired), the report offers a new avenue for restoring the nation’s military and industrial edge through innovation and strategic investments.
If you are American, then this is a report worth reading and contemplating. What can you as a manufacturing professional do? If you are not American, not to worry, the same thoughts apply to your country.
This blueprint provides actionable solutions to counter decades of erosion in America’s ability to deter adversaries. With contributions from leading defense experts and technologists, the report emphasizes the urgency of rebuilding the industrial base, leveraging non-traditional innovators, and unlocking private capital to accelerate the fielding of emerging technologies. It recommends the Department of Defense do this by divesting 15% of its budget from its current portfolio of aging, legacy systems, and investing it in a new, separate pipeline for critical technologies.
I am not sanguine about the ability of our national government to spur manufacturing growth. The first Trump administration had a few big PR photo ops. How many of those plants are actually operating? The Biden administration observed the critical need for domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Big PR ops. Oops, they partnered with Intel (had to, what other US semiconductor manufacturer is there?). Even directing investment isn’t often successful.
Yet, we must remain optimistic, for what alternative have we?
Summarizing the highlights:
- Field Emerging and Critical Technologies by Creating an Alternative Pipeline: The U.S. must establish an alternative procurement pipeline to rapidly acquire and deploy critical technologies at scale, ensuring direct operational impact and strategic advantage for warfighters.
- Restore U.S. Manufacturing as a Global Powerhouse: The U.S. must invest in dual-use manufacturing technologies, leveraging advanced practices to enable scalable production of both commercial and military goods, ensuring adaptability and resilience during conflict.
- Attract, Train, and Retain Talent for Our Nation: The U.S. must cultivate a skilled, innovative workforce that thrives in both the public and private sectors, supported by a DoD culture that values expertise, adaptability, and national security impact.
- Shift DoD Resources to Innovative Programs and Unlock Private Capital: The DoD must redirect up to 15% of its budget from legacy systems to emerging technologies, reducing risks to attract private capital and accelerate innovation.
As the report warns, the U.S. faces an unprecedented challenge in adapting its defense systems to modern threats. Without immediate action, there is a tangible risk of losing the next major conflict.
“We’re at a critical turning point that has been building for decades and we must quickly change how things work at the Department of Defense,” said Michael R. Bloomberg. “We can’t afford to wait to take urgent action, and we can’t be afraid to upset the apple cart. Without taking the kinds of steps outlined in this report, the U.S. faces grave risks to our security, our freedoms, and our position in the world.”
General David Berger added, “Our adversaries are outpacing us in speed, scale, and capability. This report is a call to action for a whole-of-nation effort to reverse this trajectory and ensure America’s strategic superiority.”
The report also includes legislative recommendations aimed at enabling decisive changes in defense innovation policy. These proposals focus on creating alternative funding pipelines, addressing supply chain vulnerabilities, and fostering public-private partnerships to mobilize resources efficiently.
The release of Strategic Edge aligns with broader efforts to modernize the Department of Defense and foster collaboration with allies and private industry. It signals a pivotal moment for stakeholders across government, industry, and academia to come together and secure the future of national defense.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 27, 2025 | News, Technology
Perhaps you’ve heard of the XPrize—a prize offered for teams solving audacious problems. While I was communicating with my editors in Italy for my monthly column (News from America) at Automazione Oggi (Automation Today), one asked about solutions to the problem of wildfire spread. Zoning law changes and some common sense clearing of brush would help. But the huge scope of these phenomena begs a huge solution.
Peter Diamandis, the driving force behind the XPrize, recently wrote about a project now two years into a four-year challenge on just this problem of wildfires. Wildfires are not only a California problem. Climate changes across the globe make this a world-wide problem.
The original announcement:
XPRIZE, the world’s leader in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges, today launched XPRIZE Wildfire, a 4-year global competition that will award $11 million prize funding to teams able to develop and demonstrate fully-autonomous capabilities to detect and extinguish wildfires.
Around the world, the severity of Extreme Wildfire Events (EWEs) is increasing, driving over 80% of fire-related damages globally and costing an approximate $350 billion in damages annually in the United States alone. EWEs spread at a faster rate and burn larger areas at higher intensities, wreak havoc on ecosystems, cause long-term global economic burdens, and often result in devastating injuries and loss of life. Despite these high environmental and economic costs, fire management technologies have not evolved significantly in decades and best practices have not changed in almost a century.
Diamandis observes:
“We have been fighting wildfires the same way for decades – it’s not working, and the destruction is getting increasingly worse. We need a radical re-invention of how we detect and battle these blazes,” said Peter H. Diamandis, Executive Chairman of the Board, XPRIZE. “The convergence of exponential technologies such as AI, robotics, drones, and sensors offer us the opportunity to detect wildfires at inception, and put them out in minutes before they spread – that’s the mission of this XPRIZE.”
XPRIZE Wildfire will incentivize teams from around the world to innovate across a wide range of technologies in two complementary tracks designed to transform how fires are detected, managed, and fought.
- In the Space-Based Wildfire Detection & Intelligence track, teams will have one minute to accurately detect all fires across a landscape larger than entire states or countries, and 10 minutes to precisely characterize and report data with the least false positives to fire managers on the ground.
- In the Autonomous Wildfire Response track, teams will need to monitor at least 1,000 km2, and autonomously suppress a wildfire within 10 minutes of detection.
- The $1M Lockheed Martin Accurate Detection Intelligence Bonus Prizewill be awarded for innovations in accurate and precise detection of wildfires.
“The reality is that we are unprepared to effectively combat the growing number of wildfires and their severity around the globe,” said Peter Houlihan, EVP, Biodiversity and Conservation, XPRIZE. “As the effects of climate change worsen, more and more communities will be at risk as dangerous wildfires increase in frequency and devastation. Thanks to the generous contributions of our sponsors and partners, XPRIZE Wildfire will accelerate innovation in detection and rapid response that will transform wildfire management practices and save lives.”
What problems are you working on solutions? Being an engineer isn’t a requirement. Creative thinking is.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 23, 2025 | Events, News
Here is a virtual opportunity to visit Italy. ZAPI Group is hosting its fourth Future of Electrification Conference. I’d love to go to Italy in person, but I think I’ll hit this virtual opportunity.
Its fourth Future of Electrification virtual conference on February 26-27, 2025 will examine trends in the worldwide shift toward electrification, challenges and opportunities across different geographical regions, and the latest innovations driving adoption and transformation.
I wonder if they’ll explore the wrench that the Trump Administration may throw into these efforts?
The conference will provide insights into market dynamics, technology, and regulatory factors shaping the electrification movement. Centered on the theme “Innovating for Change,” presenters will share leadership expertise in the industrial electrification space, discuss the impact of battery technology in the adoption of electrification, examine challenges in the evolving global trade landscape, and more.
Free registration for The Future of Electrification 2025 is now open.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 17, 2025 | Automation, Business, News, Technology
While competitors seem to be either retrenching or maintaining the status quo, Siemens used a large presence at the CES show in Las Vegas to promote its invigorated presence.
- Siemens brings Industrial AI to the Edge of the factory floor for secure access to large language models
- Aviation startup JetZero chooses Siemens Xcelerator platform to enable development of groundbreaking blended wing aircraft
- New “Siemens for Startups” program and collaboration with Amazon Web Services AWS to democratize industrial technology for small companies
- Siemens collaborates with NVIDIA to deliver physically based visualization for product lifecycle management
- Siemens and Sony corporation deliver immersive design using innovative mixed-reality headset and NX Software
Industrial AI
Siemens is showcasing its vision for the future where data, AI and software-defined automation will converge to enable unprecedented flexibility, optimization and continuous improvement across the world’s industries, for companies of any size. This ambition is at the heart of Siemens’ presence at CES 2025, the world’s most influential tech event. Siemens – the global leader in industrial software –demonstrated how its technologies are empowering customers to take bold leaps in industrial innovation.
“Industrial AI is a game-changer that will create significant positive impact in the real world across all industries. Industrial AI allows us to harness the vast amounts of data generated in industrial environments and turn it into insights that drive real business impact. We are adding new industrial AI capabilities across the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio to enable our customers to stay competitive, resilient and sustainable in an increasingly complex world,” said Peter Koerte, Member of the Managing Board, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Strategy officer, Siemens AG.
Siemens is bringing Industrial AI directly to the shop floor with the new Siemens Industrial Copilot for Operations, enabling AI tasks to run as close as possible to machines. This facilitates rapid, real-time decision making for shop floor operators and maintenance engineers, boosting productivity, operational efficiency and minimizing downtime. The Siemens Industrial Copilot ecosystem is continuously evolving to offer AI capabilities across the industrial value chain and into sectors including discrete and process manufacturing, infrastructure, and mobility. This suite of copilots can enhance human-machine collaboration across all experience levels, helping to accelerate development times and innovation cycles. The Siemens Industrial Copilot will be integrated with the Industrial Edge ecosystem, which has been enhanced with AI for deploying, operating and managing AI models within the production environment.
Blended Wing Aircraft Concept JetZero
JetZero Selects Siemens Xcelerator Platform
During Siemens’ press conference at CES 2025, the company announced an agreement with JetZero, a pioneering aviation startup working to build the future of sustainable air travel, to collaborate on the development and production of JetZero’s revolutionary blended wing aircraft. The innovative blended wing design aims to improve fuel efficiency by 50 percent, reduce noise and deliver the promise of zero carbon emissions by 2035. JetZero will leverage the Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform to design, manufacture and operate their new aircraft.
JetZero is planning to build “Factory of the Future”, a new greenfield factory in the United States where they intend to tightly integrate Siemens’ automation hardware, software and services to help it achieve its remarkably ambitious vision encompassing electrification, automation and digitalization of both the aircraft and its production. The JetZero aircraft and its associated manufacturing operations will be simulated virtually using comprehensive digital twins – enabling the company to de-risk the manufacturing process, validate the approach and scale processes long before any ground is broken or jets take to the skies.
“Siemens is giving us the confidence to take a leap, not just a step, in revolutionizing air travel,” said JetZero CEO Tom O’Leary. “Their digital twin and industrial metaverse technologies will be instrumental in helping us design, build and operate the world’s first fully digital aircraft, delivering a better experience for passengers and airlines while also reducing fuel consumption by 50 percent.”
Siemens democratizes industrial tech for startups
Siemens’ presence at CES also highlighted the company’s commitment to enabling startups and companies of all sizes to use its industrial metaverse technologies. Through the new Siemens for Startups program, innovators of any size have access to the intelligence, ecosystems and technologies they need to turn their big ideas into world-changing innovations. Siemens is providing access to venture partnering and clienting services along with dramatically reduced cost access to software and hardware from the Siemens Xcelerator open business platform. In addition, Siemens is collaborating with Amazon Web Services to offer AWS credits, business development resources and access to the AWS Activate program for technical and go-to-market support.
Collaborating with NVIDIA to bring photorealism to PLM
Together with NVIDIA, Siemens announced new additions to the Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform, including the Teamcenter Digital Reality Viewer powered by NVIDIA Omniverse, which brings large-scale, physically based visualization directly into the product lifecycle management (PLM) system. This capability also enables teams to collaborate in a secure, digital twin environment using their live 3D data, reducing errors and data discrepancies while streamlining workflows and decision-making.
“Our continued collaboration with NVIDIA will be transformative for our customers, empowering them to virtualize and visualize product and plants like never before. Bringing together the best-in-class capabilities of each company, we’re equipping customers with the tools they need to make informed decisions, optimize their operations and accelerate their digital transformation,” said Koerte.
Enabling immersive engineering with Sony
In collaboration with the Sony Corporation, Siemens is delivering a new solution for immersive engineering that brings together Siemens NX software for product engineering with a breakthrough head-mounted display from Sony to enable content creation for the industrial metaverse. Now available for pre-order and shipping beginning in February, Siemens’ new Immersive Engineering toolset brings the power of mixed reality to the product engineering and manufacturing community, enabling high-fidelity mixed reality and 3D-focused collaboration.
“In the era of digital twins, Siemens and Sony have collaborated closely to bring NX Immersive Designer to market. With 4K OLED Microdisplays, intuitive controls and the comfortable design, closely integrated with Siemens’ advanced software, we firmly believe this new immersive engineering solution will pave the way for the future of engineering.” said Seiya Amatatsu, Incubation Center, XR Technology Development Division, Sony Corporation.
Introducing Designcenter for product engineering
Koerte was joined on stage at CES by Tony Hemmelgarn, president and CEO, Siemens Digital Industries Software, to unveil Siemens’ new Designcenter software suite, which brings together its portfolio of design and engineering software including Solid Edge and NX software in one unified offering so that companies of any size can design and collaborate using the industry-leading Parasolid modeling kernel.
“A lot of companies make their design software available to small businesses or to the very largest enterprises. Designcenter is unique in that it is truly open and accessible for everyone – companies of every size can scale with the same solution set, their data in the same format – without interruption,” said Hemmelgarn.
Technology to transform the everyday
At the Siemens booth in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, Siemens is showcasing how its technology transforms the everyday, for everyone, these examples include:
Spinnova is a Finnish technology company that enables circularity in textile manufacturing with sustainable and chemical-free fabric production using Siemens’ Digital Twin technologies and factory automation.
Wayout International , a Swedish water technology company developing a proprietary drinking water production solution to improve personal health and well-being in daily life using Siemens’ edge computing, digital twin technologies and Insights Hub, the industrial IoT as a service solution from Siemens.
Desert Control is a Norwegian startup aiming to revolutionize sustainable agriculture and urban greening in regions suffering from desertification, fostering agricultural prosperity and healthy green space using Siemens’ Industrial Operations X.
Arc is an American company focused on the electrification of the marine industry and making boating more modern, enjoyable, and sustainable using Siemens’ NX, Teamcenter and Simcenter STAR-CCM+ software.
Learn more about Siemens’ presence at CES 2025.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 13, 2025 | News
Had I lived in California, I most likely would not have voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor. I’ve since experienced a different side of the Governator. He sent an email a couple of years ago touting the “positive side of the Internet.” I subscribed to the Pump Club newsletter and was an original member of the Pump Club app. He and his colleagues have built a site that positively reinforces people in their struggles to live a healthier life—fitness and nutrition.
We have been out of the country for 2.5 weeks on holiday but have kept abreast of some news. We were aware of the devastating fires sweeping through populated city neighborhoods. We are also aware of how some people gleefully have posted Schadenfreude messages about wealthy people getting their just desserts or politically motivated posts.
Consider that real people have lost everything. Not just physical property, but also memories that are sometime irreplaceable. Consider also the thousands of firefighters and support people working to help those in need. Those of you who have experienced tornados or floods can understand.
Arnold (whose house is close to the fireline himself) posted on today’s newsletter to remember all those who help out. And reminded us that complaining or posting social media comments do nothing to help. He noted the many visits to the front lines while he was governor.
Rather than complain or dismiss, he offered links to some organizations he’s worked with in the past where you might consider donating.
The LAFD Foundation: Currently looking for donations to get more gear to firefighters battling the blaze
The CalFire Benevolent Foundation: Supports firefighters and their families, as well as burn victims and disaster relief
The California Fire Foundation: Supports firefighters, families, and communities impacted by fires.
World Central Kitchen: Every time there is a disaster, Jose’s team is there. They’re in LA feeding evacuees.
Thank you.